Steve Ballmer Buys Los Angeles Clippers for $2 Billion (P. 4)

There's no way Ballmer would pay $2 billion only to move the team to Seattle. He said it himself, it would be financially destructive to do such a thing. After getting forced out of Microsoft, I really don't think he has much ties to that city anymore anyway. He's retired now and probably wants to hang with celebs and live the good life. He's probably looking at a new primary residence in Beverly Hills as we speak.

Akclipps

05/30/2014 - 02:40 AM PST

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This picture came from Dan Woike

BaadMaster

05/30/2014 - 03:17 AM PST

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ClipperKyle32 wrote:

So the dude was crazy! Good Job Shelly! Maybe she means all well. Straight To NBA for approval. This could be done Monday at the latest possibly tomorrow

Just "dating" Victor Stiviano, when you have billions, is a priori evidence that you have lost your mind.

ClipperKyle32

05/30/2014 - 08:24 AM PST

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Well Fans,
We have survived.
We have survived the reign of the putrid Donald Sterling over the years. The chapter in this book has finally been closed, and now we look to begin another chapter together with....

If you remember it comes to an end Sterling put an end to it when he is using Clippers for his business purposes but the players backed him up specially CP3.

pageC4

05/30/2014 - 09:09 AM PST

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Yeah, the cap is so confusing. I often hear people say that going over can't be done, but then you see the Lakers of old and now Brooklyn and wonder WTF.

proverbs

05/30/2014 - 09:14 AM PST

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Is this sale official? There's nothing on the Clippers or NBA website about it being official.

namzug

05/30/2014 - 09:47 AM PST

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Now we can get to basketball.

bballman

05/30/2014 - 10:38 AM PST

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you can trade for players and resign them while going over the cap. You cannot go out and sign a free agent outright and go over the cap. Once the player is on your team,you are allowed to go over the cap to re-sign him. You can use your mid-levels and go over the cap,if you have any. You have to pay luxury taxes when you reach a certain threshold. Hope that clears it up a bit. Brooklyn traded for all their guys and re-signed D-Will,who is their own player.

bballman

05/30/2014 - 10:41 AM PST

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Lakers went over the cap years ago when they extended Kobe and Pau. That was done under the previous CBA and it carried over to the new CBA.

clipper*joe

05/30/2014 - 10:43 AM PST

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Lakers went way over the cap by simply signing their own players with bird rights. You add Kobe, Odom, gasol, and at the time, Bynum to big contracts, there is your "over the cap" situation. Then you have the MLE to use, it takes the salary higher. In order to keep the salary high, you trade your high paid player to get other assets with the money you used to sign your own player. Singing your players that have bird rights is the only way the CBA allows a team to exceed the salary cap. Once you are there, all you do is trade a player and get back player/players that equals about the same amount of money. If you want to get the cap higher, if any of those players that you got came with bird rights on a final year of a contract, you are now allowed to give that player a higher salary based on having his bird rights.

Lakers just used that method to stay on top for a long time. Under this new CBA, it is harder based on the tax penalty. That is why the Lakers were starting to dump players. the only way they were able to obtain Steve Nash was via trade. They couldn't sign him outright so they worked a deal with the Suns to sign and trade him. They gave up the world for that in terms of picks, but that was the only way to do it.

It can be done and has been done. How did we go over the cap? Well, we traded a lot of players to get CP3. Since we had his bird rights, we just signed him to a bigger contract. BG? Well he was on a rookie scale until we signed our player to a max contract. DJ? Well DJ was the first player getting good money but again, he was our player. We're just under the tax threshold so how did we get there? Oh, DJ is up for another contract and if we decided, we can give him max money no matter how much we're over the salary cap. Why? Cause we have his bird rights. We can also give Crawford a max cause he'll be up for bird rights too. That wouldn't be a prudent thing to do but we can cause he will have his bird rights.

clipper*joe

05/30/2014 - 10:46 AM PST

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The players coming back have to have bird rights to them. Otherwise, You're not likely to keep them if they're more than mid-level players.

If the player coming back has two years left in his contract out of a 3 year deal, we can sign him no matter what if we keep him for the duration of the contract. That would be enough to qualify for bird rights.

JQuick32

05/30/2014 - 10:51 AM PST

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Sterling encouraged this crap by giving him free seats, rides on the team plane, etc.

sz123456

05/30/2014 - 10:58 AM PST

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Gotta agree. I really see no reason why we should think he's not taking the team to Seattle. Of course he's going to say he doesn't want to move the team, last time with Sacramento it didn't work out for him because his intentions were public. He's likely gonna put a couple years into Los Angeles, and then make the move. Once he's officially an owner, the other owners can't really stop him.

As for the move being "value destructive", if anyone here had $20 billion dollars, do you think you'd care about losing money? He's made an ungodly amount of money, now he wants to relax and watch basketball in his town. Isn't that why the Clippers moved from San Diego in the first place? Donald lived in LA and wanted to go to the games.

A team in Seattle is not worth 2 billion dollars, or even close to it. I have to believe he will keep the team in LA. The Clippers have sold out all year. Now that they are a contender, ticket prices can go up and they will still sell out. Keeping them in LA is the only thing that makes fiscal sense.

The question becomes, is this simply a vanity purchase? He's going to put the team where he wants no matter how much money he loses. If that's the case, then he's probably as big an a-hole as Sterling.

My plan is to take him at his word and expect the team to remain in LA.

Clippersfan86

05/30/2014 - 12:15 PM PST

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I agree Sam. Good to see you back brother. Miss having you around .

WinningBasket

05/30/2014 - 12:19 PM PST

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The NBA has to approve any re-location so I believe this talk of moving the Clippers to Seattle is just that: talk. It's best to just concentrate on the fact that the Clippers are in LA and will be for quite some time.

Let's enjoy the great news of having a new owner and of having this Sucking Sterling Saga eventually and finally put to rest soon.

Trueblood

05/30/2014 - 12:24 PM PST

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Either that or buy the Honda Center from Henry Samueli. It's time for the Clippers to move out of the Lakers shadow once and for all.

clipper*joe

05/30/2014 - 12:24 PM PST

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Easy there. It's not as simple as you put it. A owner cannot just up and move when he wants. There has to be just cause before it is even put up for a vote. Even then, there is no guarantee the owners will vote his way. He has to prove the team is losing money and make a case as to why the new city he wants will be different. There are obstacles he has to jump over before he can move and luckily for us, the owners make the real decision, not the owner of the team.

Clippersfan86

05/30/2014 - 12:28 PM PST

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People are forgetting that rumor has it Shelly put it in the contract that whoever she sells to WILL NOT be allowed to relocate. Also the NBA won't approve something that will hurt the value so much.

clipper*joe

05/30/2014 - 12:28 PM PST

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What shadow? In case you haven't noticed, there is a new sheriff in town. That shadow is history now just like the Lakers' success. It's all in the past. That's all they have now to feel some sort of comfort.

ClippersDA

05/30/2014 - 12:32 PM PST

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I live on the west side, I'm not driving to Anaheim for games. That's ceding the true la to the lakers. No thanks

loyalclipfan

05/30/2014 - 01:02 PM PST

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That's what everyone is forgetting! He could STAY in la, but still play at the Honda center or build a new stadium, say at Hollywood park site, either of which is fine with me....

The Clippers have just won and as you exit Staples you turn down a dark ally to get to your car. You look up and see a mysterious figure in the distance. You're on edge but decide to play it cool, proceeding to walk towards him. As you pass you sense something is wrong. But before you can react, you've been repped.

Victim #1.

I.D. Clipper Joe.

06/30/14.

FightOnRon

05/30/2014 - 02:05 PM PST

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You guys need to get off this move the team stuff. that is not going to happen. Do you want the Los Angeles CLippers of Anaheim to play near the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim?

In fact try this one,multi-billionaire Ballmer decides to buy Staples Center and evict the Lakers. How about that for fun? Let them move to Seattle.

JQuick32

05/30/2014 - 02:08 PM PST

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My bad, I thought the post got deleted. Thanks!

worm

05/30/2014 - 02:16 PM PST

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I'm getting pissed the way J Adande of ESPN the way he tweet I think even with the new owner he doesn't want the Clippers to succeed he was always on the negative side.

MrHill

05/30/2014 - 02:38 PM PST

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Another related story, but in regards to the Clippers' TV deal...
It seems that Fox had already started preliminary talks on a new TV deal with then-potential suitors, according to the Times. The article says that the Clippers may get a TV contract somewhere around $60-65 million a year, similar to what the Celtics recently signed up for with Comcast/NBC. By comparison, the Clips currently make $25 million a year from Fox, while the Lakers' monster TV deal with Time Warner Cable (which ironically will become part of Comcast within a year's time) nets them up to a $150....

Another related story, but in regards to the Clippers' TV deal...
It seems that Fox had already started preliminary talks on a new TV deal with then-potential suitors, according to the Times. The article says that the Clippers may get a TV contract somewhere around $60-65 million a year, similar to what the Celtics recently signed up for with Comcast/NBC. By comparison, the Clips currently make $25 million a year from Fox, while the Lakers' monster TV deal with Time Warner Cable (which ironically will become part of Comcast within a year's time) nets them up to a $150....

A lot is supply and demand though. We probably have the smallest viewing audience of any LA sport,maybe even less then college FB. Wouldn't warrant a huge TV contract.

But this Ballmer guy has to be up to something. I do not believe it is a move of the team,but something. You don't spend that kind of cash for something to sit on it. you want to do something take make it even more profitable then it is. This is an investment, so how do you get your largest return so you can make your 2 billion back. My first guess was a huge TV contract but like we are discussing, the market for our team is pretty small right now. Something though

JQuick32

05/30/2014 - 03:01 PM PST

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I would be shocked if we had a smaller audience than the Kings, Galaxy, Chivas USA, or Kiss.

Kerley

05/30/2014 - 03:17 PM PST

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No, no, the $65million A YEAR is about right. These deals are for 20 years. The angels deal was for 20 years, the deal for the Clippers at $65million a year is $1.3billion over the 20years. Lakers got $5 or $6billion for 20 years, Dodgers got $8billion I think. To think the Clippers aren't worth at least 2, would be crazy. $1.3 is the first number in the negotiations. Ballmer will make his money back in the TV deal. Guarantee it.

I expect him to become a frontier in technology and how it applies to the sport, all ways to make his money back.

Clippers_FTW

05/30/2014 - 03:18 PM PST

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in 2 years.... San Bernardino Clippers!!!!! lol

worm

05/30/2014 - 03:27 PM PST

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Or not an investment but a toy for billionaires like Balllmer.

FightOnRon

05/30/2014 - 03:45 PM PST

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I won't give you MLS,but I will give you KISS. Are they even on TV? (well and maybe the Sparks). Kings I wouldn't bet on that one.

Maybe I should have said major sports people actually care about !

FightOnRon

05/30/2014 - 03:47 PM PST

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Could be but I think of Lamborghinis and 100 foot yachts as their kinds of toys but who the eff knows,I don't actually know a billionaire and am pretty sure I never will!

ClipperKyle32

05/30/2014 - 04:01 PM PST

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Welp! Hey! He got diagnosed with Alzheimer's -- I really hate that , such a terrible diseases. He has no idea what he is doing. He has multiple lawyers talking for him. Well our new....

By the way, this Blecker guy is a scumbag who is taking advantage of someone with Alzheimer's to make money.

cleepers

05/30/2014 - 04:37 PM PST

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ClipperKyle32 wrote:

Oh, that Donald... he's so crazy!

At least, according the doctors his wife paid

Clippersfan86

05/30/2014 - 04:52 PM PST

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Ramona Shelburne says this lawsuit has nothing to do with the sale. But rather his banishment from the league and 2.5 million dollar fine. I believe the Sterling's are working together on this to make as much money as possible on the way out, knowing their time is done. Shelly handles the sale of the team, because of her cleaner reputation. Donald comes at the league with a lawsuit to try to get a little extra dough and damage the NBA further in retaliation.